Intro

Hello, Blogosphere! My name is Erin, AKA beautifulRain, and I'm a happily married twenty-something with 3a/3b curls. Some (most) of you probably found this blog from NaturallyCurly.com's forums. Since this is my first post, I'll tell you a little of what I plan to do with this blog space. Like most people with naturally curly hair, I've been on a life-long quest to find a hair care regimen that consistently gives me beautiful curls. To me, that means no frizz, and defined, spirally curls. I recently began following the "Curly Girl" method as described by Lorraine Massey in her book of the same name (find it here) and throughout articles on NaturallyCurly.com. I've already learned so much about curly hair, product ingredients and the various factors that affect curly hair, and I want to keep a "hair diary" detailing those factors so I can find any patterns and figure out what combination of products works best in different situations. In each post I will list all products used for the day, local weather conditions and styling methods along with photos (and maybe videos). Unless specifically noted, ALL products discussed were purchased by me for my personal use and I receive no compensation for mentioning those products here.

So, without further ado...

Today's weather:

High: 29

Low: 10

Humidity (avg): 56%

Dewpoint (agv): 12

Today's products:

Low-poo: Silk Elements Color Care Sulfate-Free Shampoo

Ingredients: Water, sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, isopropylamine dodecylbenzenesulfonate, glycol stearate, ammonium lauryl sulfosuccinate, fragrance, PEG-150 distearate, PPG-2 hydroxyethyl cocamide, panthenol, hydrolyzed silk, hydrolyzed keratin, polyquaternium-11, hydrolyzed vegetable protein PG-propyl silanetriol, simmondsia chinensis (jojoba) seed oil, cinnamidopropyltrimonium chloride, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed extract, butylene glycol, DMDM hydantoin, iodopropynylbutylcarbamate, sodium chloride, tetrasodium EDTA, phosphoric acid, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, butylphenyl methylpropionol, limonene, red 33

Rinse-out Conditioner: Suave Daily Clarifying Conditioner

Ingredients: Water, cetyl alcohol, stearamidopropyl dimethylamine, lactic acid, potassium chloride, fragrance, disodium EDTA, PEG-150 distearate, 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1, 3-diol, tocopheryl acetate, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone

SalonCare Sparkling Apples and Pears Conditioner (leave-in)

Ingredients: Water, cetyl alcohol, stearalkonium chloride, hydrolyzed keratin, pyrus malus (apple) fruit extract, pyrus communis (pear) fruit extract, propylene glycol, dicetyldimonium chloride, fragrance, citric acid, dmdm hydantoin, blue 1, yellow 5.

Biotera Moisturizing Leave-In Conditioner

Ingredients: Water, PEG-8, panthenol, keratin amino acids, achillea millefolium extract, calendula officinalis flower extract, hydroxyethylcellulose, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, cetrimonium chloride, citric acid, polyquaternium-4, propylene glycol, sodium chloride, tetrasodium EDTA, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothaizonlinone, DMDM hydantoin alpha-isomethyl ionone, amyl cinnamal, butylphenyl methylpropionol, cinnamyl alcohol, coumarin, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, hydroxycitronellal, limonene, linalool, fragrance

LA Looks Sport Gel

Ingredients: Water, PVP, sorbitol, carbomer, keratin amino acids, panthenyl ethyl ether, palmitoyl oligopeptide, glyceryl polymethacrylate, propylene glycol, glycerin, oleth-20, rahnella/soy protein ferment, aminomethyl propanol, PEG-8, tetrasodium EDTA, benzophenone-4, methylparaben, diazolidinyl urea, methylchloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, fragrance, butylphenyl methylpropional, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, limonene, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, benzyl salicylate, citronellol, violet 2, blue 1

Styling method: Today I did a basic low-poo (last night I smoothed some EVOO through my hair as a pre-poo/conditioning treatment) and then followed with a regular rinse-out conditioner. Nothing more to say about that. I did a towel-turban, then raked my leave-ins through and used my Denman D3 brush to distribute. Then I scrunched in the gel in 4 sections (each side, top and back). Finally, I used a small microfiber towel (you can get a 10-pack of them in the car-care section of the store with the big red bullseye on it) to scrunch the excess moisture/product out of my hair and encourage clumps and curls. I also did this in 4 sections. This is my go-to styling method right now since my hair is still pretty short. I'm happy with the results today. It was VERY cold and windy and we got a couple inches of snow over night. I'd like my curls a little tighter, but they were pretty much frizz-free and reasonably well-defined.

So here's my hair today [it's not actually as red as it looks in the photos...]:

Notes: Lots of protein in today's combo of products. The Sparkling Apples and Pears conditioner smells like Green Apple Now 'n' Later candy. Hair photos were taken at the end of the day, so you can see that my curls did last all day. I'm hoping for second-day hair tomorrow! My hair is not crunchy or sticky at all and I did not need to SOTC. I did a clarifying sulfate shampoo (Suave daily clarifying 'poo) a couple days ago because I felt like I had some build-up (from well water maybe?). Otherwise I've been sulfate-free since mid-October doing cowashes and occasional low-poos as needed.

Stay curly,

E